Silver Lining
by just-a-hs-student
Summary: Coming from a whirlwind, Maura was thrown into a life that she once lived but didn't crave for anymore. She was hurt, broken and just wanted to get away. Then she met Jane, a young teacher that for some reason wanted to fix her. Will she push her away like everyone else?
1. Chapter 1

She pushed the double doors and dragged herself inside. The beanie she was wearing was extremely hot for the weather but she chose to endure it, she needed to cover more of her in the attempts of making herself invisible. She has to.

She walked with her head down through the halls. She didn't need to look up and see where she's going, she knows this all too well. Where to turn, what places to avoid, where to hide. Where she's going wouldn't help her much with hiding but she has to do it. She agreed to it after all.

_You have to attend school, sweetheart. Please, for me?_ Her adoptive mother's sweet voice floated in her head. She appreciates her but it isn't enough to stop her from acting out. The problem is much bigger to be solved with just freshly baked pastries and bags and bags of money. _Please, don't make this hard for me._ And so she did, even though her entire being was screaming no.

She looked up just enough to scout an empty chair. Thank God everyone was a kiss ass and wanted nothing more than be near the teacher because the last row was empty. She sat down on the corner seat and brought out her music player. The loud sound of 90's rock music blared through the earphones and everything around her started to drift away. She eventually got comfortable and got lost in the music.

_Thud._

Her spacing out ended quickly when her feet was so rudely pushed from being propped on the seat in front of her. She snatched her earphones off and looked up with a deadly glare. 'What?'

'Are you supposed to be in this class, sweetheart?'

_Sweetheart._ Everyone calls her that and she hated it. It was so condesending. Nobody meant it. 'Do you think i would be out of bed this early if i just wanted to see your face?'

An untamed eyebrow slowly arched. 'I didn't see you on the pre class meeting.'

'That's because I didn't go.'

'It's required.'

'I know for a fact it isn't.'

The teacher sighed, defeated. 'Fine.'

She smirked and watched as the teacher walked back to the front of the class. She knows her. They've met last year but she's pretty sure the teacher's blocked her memory out. Everyone tries to and she's fine with that.

'Good morning, everyone!'

_Too cheery._ She tuned out immediately. She knows how this goes. For the next few minutes, she did everything to keep her entertained. As rude as she was, she didn't want to fall asleep in class. The last time she did, she woke up with a head full of gum. She was new back then and everybody picked on her. After a while, everybody left her alone and she couldn't be more pleased. She didn't really need friends, she tried that before and nobody stayed, nobody really understood her. She was far to out there for anyone to understand. Far too hurt, far too broken. Solitude is her only friend.

'You in the back, the one in the hoody...'

She heard it but didn't look up.

'I checked the list and you're not supposed to be here. You're not enrolled. What's your name?'

She chuckled to herself when she remembered that she forgot to do it. She really couldn't care less. 'I forgot to do it.'

'Young lady, you cannot come here and expect us to just accommodate you. You have to enroll!.' She touched her temples as if to will away a headache. She smirked knowing that she did that. 'You have to attend the pre class orientation, you have to-'

'Don't give yourself a heart attack, lady. I'll go to the office and sort this out.'

The teachers left hand curled into a fist. 'You do that.' She gritted out.

She stood up and walked out of her room. Before she could grab the knob, the teacher snapped her head to her. 'Just so I don't forget this time, what's your name?'

She pulled the door open and then said without looking back, 'Maura Isles.'

* * *

Long raven hair danced in the wind as Jane Rizzoli pulled her helmet off. She turned the key to turn off the engine and slid it in her pocket. She turned to the building and the grounds were already empty. Class has already started. It was silent, too silent for Jane's liking as she walked to the big double doors of the school. Nerves slowly creeped on her but she shook it off. She took a deep breath and tried to smile.

'Damn! What class are you in, girl?' Jane looked back and saw a prepubescent boy checking her out. 'What's your name, sweetheart?'

Not ten minutes she's here and she's already been hit on. Jane knew she was beautiful. She was tall, lean and had gorgeous features. A lot of her classmates in college had a crush on her and they never fail to praise her about her looks. It didn't bother her at the time, the attention felt nice but this, this made her feel annoyed. She tried to tamper down the urge to bitch slap the grinning boy.

'What's your name?' Jane said calmly.

'Jonathan.' He said confidently.

'We'll Jonathan, I'm gonna be in your class.'

The boy flashed a dirty smile. 'Sweet. Seat next to me. You look new, I'll show you the ropes.'

Jane took a deep breath. 'Great. Is your seat upfront?'

'No, baby. We should sit in the back to get to know each other better.'

Jane took a step forward and looked down at the boy. 'I need it to be in front, Jonathan. I'm in the same class as you cause I'm your teacher.' The smugness drained from the boy in an instant. 'So you better be in front of my class so you can get to know _me_ better.' Jane nodded once and lifted an eyebrow. 'Shouldn't you be at class?'

The boy nodded dumbly and started to step back. Before Jane could say anything else, he started running away and disappeared into a hallway. She breathed out. It was oddly satisfying that she's able to scare that kid. She should if she wanted to survive teaching high school kids. She was once in high school and she was a terror.

'Ms. Rizzoli?'

Jane looked back and saw the woman who hired her. 'Good morning, Ms. Cavanaugh'

'Ready?'

* * *

**A/N:** Just testing this out. Continue or nah? Let me know. :)


	2. Chapter 2

'Ms. Rizzoli, so nice to have you here in Beacon High. You come highly recommended. I'm so glad you picked us to start your career with!' Mrs. Cavanaugh opened the door with the words Administration Office posted on it. She gestured for Jane to come in and the brunette did. 'I'm sure you got offers from a whole bunch of schools, I still don't get whet you picked us. Did you have problems getting here?'

Jane did. A lot of schools offered her with jobs but she turned all them down for Beacon High. As to why, Jane didn't really know but she had a feeling that this place would be a great start. 'No. It was quite far but an easy travel.' Jane scrunched up her nose when she heard a loud ringing coming from the small office to her right.

'Ms. Rizzoli, I.. uh. I have to get that. I'm sorry. Please take a sit. That might be the Mayor, checking in on how the first day of class is going.'

Jane smiled at the older woman and nodded. 'It's okay. Please take all the time that you need.'

The Principal rushed to the room and closed the door lightly. Jane looked around the room and saw two tables with stacks of papers on them, on her left was a door that she saw was the teacher's lounge. As soon as she read the faded print out of the word teacher, she gasped. It was slowly becoming more real to her, that what's she's dreamt of as a kid was here in this moment, tangible. She felt proud and it flared in her chest. All those late nights, hard work, sweat and tears have finally paid off and now she's here. It was a weird thing to aspire to, people told her. They constantly reminded her that being a teacher wouldn't get her into anything but a ton of debt but she ignored all the criticisms. She's been wanting to teach since she was a kid and Jane didn't let those people mess with her head. She was focused, driven and determined. _This is the best da-_

The door was pushed open and it bounced off when it hit the wall adjacent to it. 'Why are you even in this school?!' Jane turned to the angry voice and saw a sharply dressed young woman. She put her hands on the arm rests of the chair, as if ready to leap and uncrossed her legs. 'C'mon!' She yanked a hand in and Jane saw a student almost trip as she was pulled inside the room. Jane stood up swiftly. 'Woah, what are you doing? Let go of her!'

Jane's presence startled the young lady and she let go of Maura's hand. At the lost of connection, she quickly stepped in front of Maura and put a hand behind her, shielding her. 'What were you just doing to her?'

The young lady opened her mouth but nothing came out. Jane's height and her blazing eyes shut her up.

'Is that the way you treat students here? You manhandle them?'

The young lady was finally able to grumble a low 'No.'

'Then why did you just drag her in here?'

'I-.. I- She- She was being a bitc- difficult.. She was being difficult!'

'I don't care if she was being difficult, you don't treat students that way. Do you want this getting to her parents?'

Suddenly being reminded that the woman in front of her was a stranger, the young lady squared her shoulders and stood taller. 'Easy, _miss_. I don't know you, you don't know me and you don't know her!' Jenna pointed to Maura. 'You don't have the right to shout at me about-'

'Jenna!'

All three turned back and saw the Principal on the door, her hands curled into a fist, the piece of paper on it already crumpled. 'Ms. Rizzoli, please come with me.' She then turned her attention to the two. 'I'll deal with you both in a moment.' The Principal got in, not leaving a chance for anyone to contest her statement. Jane glared at the girl apparently named Jenna before she turned to the student.

'Are you okay, sweetie?' Big green eyes looked up at her and blinked at her a couple times. Jane lifted her arm and checked for bruises, there was none. Jane knew it would probably come a little later but she couldn't help but check.

'Yeah, I'm good.' Maura snatched her arm back and sat down on the chair Jane was just in.

Jane was surprised at her action but just nodded and walked to the Principal's office. Before she closed the door, she looked at the student one more time. Maura was currently fixing her beanie and straightening her shirt.

'I'm sorry you had to see that, Ms. Rizzoli. I promise you that's not how we treat out students here. Jenna's a bit on edge because of the number of enrollees today. All their parents wanted the best for their kids and they were breathing down their neck. But I'm impressed with how you handled her actually.' The Principal took her seat in an ugly brown leather chair and pointed to the green suede monstrosity in front of her equally unsightly desk. Jane hesitated to seat but she figured she had no choice. 'You were right, we don't deal with our students in that way but Maura is a special case.'

'Maura? That's her name, Maura?'

'Yes, that's her name.' The Principal opened a folder in front of her and handed a paper to Jane. Jane wanted to keep talking about Maura but was stopped when the paper appeared on her face. She took and read it. 'That's your schedule. We wanted to ease you in but with the amount of our enrollees tripled this year, forcing the teachers to take more load. I hope your schedule is okay with you...'

'It's fine. I'm more of a cannon ball than a floaties kind of person'

'Good, good. Now, for some ground rules. You have to come in at 8:00 am. Classes start at 9 but we have a daily morning meeting by 8:30. Attendance to that is necessary. We usually do that at the Teacher's Lounge, i believe you've seen it, it's just outside. You can go home as soon as you finish your classes and you can wear casual on Fridays. For the rest of the rules...' The old woman pulled out a thin book. '..take that home with you and read up, dear.' Jane eyed the book. 'Don't get intimidated. Those are normal rules that you probably already know. Now, would you like to see the rest of the school?'

Jane was already walking back to her bike. She's a little overwhelmed, her head was a bit floating will all the information that was presented to her but nevertheless, she was happy. The energy of everything kept her spirits up, no matter how scary it was. Jane looked at the sky for a moment and breathe out. Tomorrow, the rest of her life is gonna start.

Jane pulled her keys and was to throw on the helmet when she saw someone on her peripheral vision. She turned and saw Maura, she never forgot the name, walking on the school parking lot, seemingly on her way out. She put down her things and started walking towards her. 'Maura!'

Maura slowed down her step and turned to the source of the sound. She squinted, the beating sunshine making it hard for her to see and saw raven hair dancing as a tall woman walked jogged to her direction.

'Maura!' Jane finally caught up to her and smiled as she sighed her name. 'What are you doing here?'

Maura looked confused as to why this woman defended her already and why she was talking to her now. 'What?'

'It's not even lunch, where are you going?'

Maura shook her head. 'How do you know my name?'

'The Principal told me, she-'

'She told you about me already?'

They both reached a tree and they stopped on the shade. 'She didn't tell me anything, just your name. I'm Jane. I'm your new English teacher.'

'I really don't care. Look, I have to go.'

'Where? Are you cutting classes?'

Maura sighed then chuckled mockingly. 'Look, lady, you best leave me alone but just to satisfy your curiosity, yes, I'm cutting classes. Talk to Cavanaugh if you wanna know more about me. I'm sure she's got plenty to tell.' Maura walked away and left a gaping Jane. No one has ever talked to her that way before. She was taken aback by the biting tone and sass. As insulting as it was, Jane was interested. She saw a front, a shell. She saw layers. She's always had a thing for reforming bad students and Maura just became a prime candidate. 'I can't wait for tomorrow.'

* * *

**A/N:** So, like 8 of you reviewed. Thanks, I guess. This is weird. So yeah, I continued. For the record, Maura and Jane are OOC here, as you can see but the foundations of who they are will show in future chapters. I'm a little slow with writing because I'm actually graduating. I had this idea for Chapter 2 for a while now, but just now did I have the time to beat it out. It's a little slow but it will pick up. I just hope someone will be there when it does. Ha. No beta, i think that's fairly obvious, mistakes are mine. I'll try to reread it and edit. Thanks for following and faving. Have a good day.


	3. Chapter 3

_Pancakes. The sweet aroma of freshly made pancakes wafted through Maura's room and passed by her nose, making it scrunch. Sleep slowly left her body and the mouth watering urge to have some won. She bolted right up. It was like this every morning and Maura loved it. At exactly 6, her mom would make the most delicious pancakes in the world and once laid out on the table, it would take her just under 5 minutes to be woken up by it. Slipping on her fuzzy slippers, she stood up and stretched her body, making a noise that her mother often teases her sounds like a dinosaurs roar. She popped a few bones in her back by twisting her body to the left and to the right before she walked out of her room and got down to the kicthen. She smiled at the sight of five perfectly shaped pancakes. There was still steam coming out of syrup, her mother must have just taken it out of the heat. There were two settings on the table and she sat on her seat. She always sat beside the head of the table, her mother's place. Maura knew it was rude to start without her but the pancakes were so tempting, she had no choice but to dig in. Her mother would understand._

_She was well into her third pancake when she noticed that her mother still was nowhere to be found. _

_'Mother?' Maura called. _

_She stood from her seat and walked to the living room. Nothing. She ran back up to her room and the bed was made. Maura went back to her room and grabbed her phone from the dresser. She dialed. She knew her mother's number by heart. Soft ascending tones were heard from across the hall and Maura saw the phone_ _tucked in her mother's bag. She started to get nervous but she ignored it. _Maybe she's at the neighbors, borrowing salt. She always forgets to buy salt during grocery runs.

_Maura sat back down in her seat and looked down at her half eaten meal. She waited. It could've been an hour or four, she didn't notice. Maura knew her mother wouldn't leave without saying goodbye. _

_'Maura?'_

_Her head perked up and she smiled in relief. Her mother was calling her. The voice seemed distant so she stood from her seat and followed it. 'Mom? Where are you? Mom?!'_

_'Maura, honey..'_

_'Mom, where are you?' Maura looked everywhere. She looked crazy going around in circles but she still can't find the source of the voice. Tears started forming in her eyes and when one fell, she quickly wiped it with the back of her hand. It would hurt her mother to see her crying._

'Maura, I love you sweetheart. Don't forget.'

_'Mom, please! Where are you?' She tried but Maura couldn't stop the tears anymore. The voice sounded farther, she barely heard the last words. Her knees trembled and she dropped down on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. She wrapped her arms around her knees as she tried to get a hold of her self. 'Mom, please, please, don't leave me. You're all I have.' She cried harder._

'Maura?'

_A voice. Different, but in the cloud of her heartbreak sounded a lot like her mother. 'Mom, where are you?'_

'Maura, sweetheart, wake up.'

_Maura was confused. She stood up and looked around. She ran to the door and yanked it open. There was her mother standing. Maura smiled but was soon horrified when she saw the fear in her mother's eyes. Everything around her slowly started to materialize. The two men dragging her, a black van and a tall man with a gun. Maura's mother shook her head, as if to say to not say a word. Maura bit her tongue as the tears flowed. Sounds of siren came from the end of the street and the men scrambled to get Maura's mother in the vehicle. She however fought the men long enough for the officers of the law to get to her. The tall guy with the gun spoke and he instructed that she be let go. Maura ran to her mother when the two men holding her set her free. Maura didn't notice the the gun pointed to her or the shot that rang out after the trigger was pulled. She just noticed her mom dropping to the ground, blood coating her once white blouse._

_'Mom?' She dropped to the ground and dragged her mother's body to her. 'Mom?!'_

_'I love you, Maura.. I always will.' Her mother's eyes slipped close._

_'Mom!'_

'Maura?! Maura, honey. You were having a bad dream.'

Maura's eyes opened and looked at her worried adoptive mother.

_A dream. _

She tried to get a hold of her breathing as she escaped the intense gaze by suddenly looking everywhere. Her eyes focused and she saw her room.

'Are you okay, dear? Do you need some water?'

Maura abruptly pulled herself up, almost knocking the woman above her. 'I'm fine. I'm gonna..'She looked around and saw her clock flash 6:56 AM. '...i'm gonna go get ready for school.'

'Oh.' Never in the years that they've known each other has Maura uttered those words and it shocked Susan to the core. 'Alright. There's breakfast downstairs. Come join me when you're done.' The older woman stood up and made her way to the door.

Maura ran to the bathroom, stripped of every piece of clothing and turned on the shower. She let the scalding water strip away the bad dream she just had. She grabbed the shampoo and squirted an ample amount on her hand but before she can lather it on to her hair, Maura started crying. Her shoulder shook violently as her sobs racked through her. She dropped down on the floor and wrapped her arms around her folded legs. The pain didn't stop. The longing wasn't gone. It has been two years and the wounds felt fresher and deeper.

'I miss you so much, Mom.'

* * *

'Ma, what are you doing here?' Jane's door was knocked on for about five minutes before she opened it. She knew who it was. No one of sound mind would go visit her this early in the morning.

Angela smiled as she pushed past her daughter and walked to the kicthen. Jane saw her mother unload the groceries and rolled her eyes at the predictability. She was just glad that this didn't happen anymore when she was at her dorm. 'Ma, I've already had breakfast. You're late.'

'But it's only 7:15, Janie. Did you eat stale bagels again?'

Jane grabbed her steaming coffee. 'No.' _Yes._

'It's not gonna take long, baby. Plus, you're already dressed. Just sit down. Tell me all about your new job.'

'..and there it is. Time it, ladies and gentlemen.' Jane sat down on the table and reached for a fresh bread that her mother brought.

Angela swung to Jane, chopping knife in hand. 'What? Is it so bad for a mother to know how her baby girl is doing? It's your first job, Honey! I still remember when you were a little kid and you wouldn't let go of my hand when I took you to daycare. You were so cute with yah little curls!'

'First, can you stop swinging that knife around? You're gonna hurt yourself.' Angela gruffed as she did. It was so Jane to ruin her moment. 'Second, you already told me that when I went to High School, then when I went to College and now that I have my first real job. Third, I'm great. I'm excited to start doing what I have loved doing since I sported those little curls.'

Angela teared up at Jane's speech. She hurried to her daughter and gave her a crushing hug. 'Oh my baby...'

'Coffee! Coffee, I'm holding coffee!'

Angela immediately backed away. 'Oh, I'm sorry, Honey. I'm just so excited for you.'

'I know, I'm excited too.' Jane thought of telling her mother about Maura but she was aware of her wanting to reform bad kids and she hasn't been supportive. Her mother puts in the nicest words but her disdain for this particular trait of her daughter is clear. 'C'mon, cook me some food so I can get out of here. I can't be late.'

* * *

**A/N: **Oh wow, I haven't been on in a while. Sorry about that. Work, School, Work, School. You know how it is. I felt bad that I haven't updated in a while so I uploaded this. Sorry, it's super short but this shows a smidgen of why Maura is what she is. This is just a small part. There's something deeper and it ran a year before she was in Susan's care. THANK YOU to all that has reviewed, favorited and followed. Your comments really make my day. Dunno when I can update again but I'll try to make it longer. The idea is already done in my head and my head is screaming for me to get it out before I lose it but I can't find the time :(As per usual, no beta so all mistakes are mine. See you next time. :)


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